In Tiverton, hundreds protest tolls slated for Sakonnet River Bridge

On Sunday, hundreds gathered and more honked their horns to protest the imminent tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge. With a 10-cent toll due to begin at midnight on Monday, 200 to 300 opponents gathered on the Portsmouth, R.I., side of the bridge at 5 p.m., carrying signs and waving flags. The signs de...

On Sunday, hundreds gathered and more honked their horns to protest the imminent tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge.

With a 10-cent toll due to begin at midnight on Monday, 200 to 300 opponents gathered on the Portsmouth, R.I., side of the bridge at 5 p.m., carrying signs and waving flags. The signs denounced the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority for imposing tolls and Gov. Lincoln Chafee for allowing them.

Hundreds of cars, trucks, recreational vehicles and motorcycles honked their horns or revved their engines as they passed.

For those gathered, civil disobedience was the proper course of action, according to John Vitkevich, a Portsmouth resident who has been an outspoken opponent to the tolls.

“Don’t use your E-ZPass,” Vitkevich said. “Leave it at home or wrap it in tinfoil when you cross the bridge. Make them bill you for 10 cents.

“We need to jam up the RITBA phone lines. We need to jam up their customer service. That is civil disobedience in a financial way. Refuse to use your E-ZPass.”

Many at the gathering said they felt they were lied to by state leaders, especially the Rhode Island Department of Transportation and Gov. Lincoln Chafee. As recently as January, state leaders maintained there would be no toll on the bridge.

In 2003, when the bridge was first proposed, RIDOT said public opposition made tolls unfeasible. In 2012, Chafee turned the bridge over to the RITBA. On Jan. 31 of this year, RIDOT said there would be a toll. On April 17, the toll rates were announced: 75 cents per crossing for cars with an E-ZPass transponder from Rhode Island, $3.75 per crossing for cars with transponders from other states, $5.25 for cars without a transponder.

“I’m totally against this,” said Jeff Belli of Tiverton, who was part of Sunday's protest. “The state of Rhode Island, what it is doing is making up its financial shortages on the backs of Aquidneck Island. They’ve been doing it for years, and they continue to do it.”

“This is terrible,” said George Giacobbi of Portsmouth. “This is a scam.

“The state is just trying to figure out different ways to make money from us.”

“Remember the tolls at the polls,” Charlie Chase of Fall River said. “I feel for the people here. I’m in the medical supply business, and I talk to a lot of people from Aquidneck Island. They have to go to the hospitals and clinics in Fall River, some of them on a daily basis. This is really going to hurt them. I really had to come out.”

The protest was peaceful — cheerful at times on a nice summer evening. Even while speakers rose to decry the state, others walked out the bike path to the center of the span to take pictures of boats passing below. Mothers pushed babies in strollers. A small group of dogs played in a nearby field.

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But Jean Smith, an opposition organizer, was cheered when she said she would vote against every elected official who allowed the toll.